We are Wendy and Mike, an American couple in iur 50s living in the UK for over 2 years. We had been pet sitting full time since we moved here 2 years ago, but recently got a flat in London to have a home base. We still love to travel so thought using HE made sense to make use of our flat when we arent there and be able to have points to use for other trips in the future. We have also been Airbnb Superhosts for over 3.5 years in the past and love hosting people. Combined with our pet sitting we have a solid 5 years and over 100 5-star reviews between Airbnb, VRBO and Trusted Housesitters platforms.
We joined HE in August this year and have a total of 10 HE guests booked to staying in our London flat. It has been very easy for us to get people wanting to stay and I respond very quickly to requests (being on the other platforms has reinforced the need to be responsive). However, now we are trying to find a place to stay in Paris (2 bed, 2 bath for 3 people) for 7-8 nights over New Years Eve 2025. I have sent around 8-10 messages and have had a hard time getting any response. I’ve only messaged people who have their listing available for the dates we are interested in. Its disapointing to think we have earned over 20,000 pts but may not be able to get stays when we want or need them.
Typically we can be flexible with our travel, but for this trip to Paris we are coordinating it to when our 23 yr old dsughter is coming to visit us in London from the US for the holidays and we wanted to take her to Paris for a week. She has to return to the US on January 6th so we only have the time between Christmas to Dec 5th. If we wait too long the Eurostar ticket prices will go up, so we need to get something confirmed soon.
Here is our listing for reference. Any suggestions are appreciated and of couse of anyone has a place in Paris for an exchange we would love to hear from you.
Is there a FB page for members to boost their exposure and specific interests for exchanges?
Hi Wendy and Mike, welcome to the forum.
You have one big advantage on thexdite, that of owning a home in London! Proof being you’ve accepted so many guests for points. You woukd have orovably easily found gyests for reciprocal stats too. Unfortunately now yoy’re offering points for Paris, so you are no more at advantage than many other members offering points for Paris over New Year. You also have the disadvantage of not having any exchange experience or reviews as guests. Many experienced exchangers won’t take your experience on non-exchange sites into consideration as exchanging is a whole different world compared to house sitting or renting.
As you aren’t ablecto offer reciprocal over New,Year as you already have guests, maybe you could offer a non-reciprocal exchange for their New Year / yoi’re summer ( or Xmas 2025).
Incidentally your calendar shiws you’re looking for Paris in October.
You could also join and post on the Facebook groups reserved for subscribed members.
I will go and update my calendar for the Paris trip, I didn’t realize it was set for October, all my requests have been for the Dec-Jan time period.
Also, we don’t have our place booked during that time and our calendar shows it open. I can change it to be open for any kind of exchange. All of the request we have made have been to people open and available for GuestPoint exchanges on the requested dates.
That is very disheartening to hear that people are reluctant to host someone without a guest stay on this or another Home Exchage platform. I have provided a link to our Trusted Housesitters profile with nearly 70-5 star reviews over a current 2 year period. We care for not only peoples homes, but also their beloved pets which is far more responsibility than just staying in someones home on vacation. We also have review after review that states how clean their home is when they return; far often cleaner than they left it. If that isn’t sufficient validation of our chatacter and trustworthiness than I don’t know how anyone gets a first stay.
If anyone has other suggestions I am very open to learning the best ways to utilize the platform. We obviously are eager to embrace HE, but need it to work both ways to see the benefit.
London is the second most requested city in the site. You won’t have problems to find reciprocal exchanges, like this you don’t depend on your guestpoints. Guestpoints are more a solution for those of us living in less touristic places where less members want to come.
This is very interesting and informative. As a new member with a secondary home it would be easy to build a lot of points by hosting but not so easy to use them ?
It depends really where you try to use them. Many members accept guests for points, but the problem here is a major city. The members can be more ‘picky’. Many members in NYC, Paris, London, Lisbon only do reciprocal exchanges because they know they’ll get plenty of offers.